Wrigley on schedule for NHL game

Chicago's weather is being closely monitored by the National Hockey League.

Chicago's weather is being closely monitored by the National Hockey League.

The NHL is preparing to hold its Winter Classic matchup at Wrigley Field on New Year's Day.

More than 40,000 people are expected to fill the stands when the league's hottest team, the Chicago Blackhawks, take on the defending and 11-time Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings.

At a news conference Saturday afternoon at Wrigley, Don Renzulli, senior vice president of events with the NHL, said preparations for the event are going smoothly despite the weather.

'If you look outside, we're well beyond where we were last year,' he said. 'Boards are up, ice is down. Outside of Mother Nature taking a turn on us we're doing pretty well.'

There has been at least one mix-up. Renzulli said 300 people cleaned snow out of the stadium Friday, but the rains that fell Saturday would've washed it away anyway.

Delayed flights also kept NHL staff coming into Midway and O'Hare International airports from arriving on time, and a few are still in transit, Renzulli said. As a result, the 350-gallon, 10-hour paint job for the new ice rink has been bumped from Saturday to Sunday.
But there has been a silver lining for the NHL in the clouds storming over northern Illinois. The heavy rains that threatened flooding also meant less water had to be pumped into the 20,000-gallon rink.
The weather 'helped us with water falling from the sky, instead of us doing it through the hose,' said Dan Craig, director of facilities operation.

This will be the second regular-season NHL Winter Classic outdoor game in the United States and the third regular-season outdoor game in league history. In November 2003, Montreal met Edmonton at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium. Last New Year's Day, the Buffalo Sabers hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo.